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At the very end of June, I celebrated the quarter of a century anniversary of my existence on Earth. First, my family treated me to a Long Island Ducks game. They’re an extremely talented local minor league team. Oh, and my name appeared on the scoreboard for my birthday.

Afterwards, there were some pretty sweet fireworks.

My actual birthday was on Saturday, so on Friday, my co-workers decorated my desk. The day of, I received some pretty great presents including a Salve Regina University Alex and Ani bracelet from my parents, a Tiffany’s key from my beau and homemade apple pie moonshine from my sister.

Combined, all of these things are more than any girl can ask for, especially when wanting a distraction from the unfounded feeling of aging and useless nostalgia brought on by the BIG 2 5. But somehow, my sister found a way to bridge my path from childhood to adulthood in a way that didn’t make me feel as though I were in some type of age purgatory–not quite a full-blown adult, but certainly not a child.

So, she designed a triple-tiered Harry Potter themed birthday cake–complete with Harry’s glasses, a Gryffindor scarf, a golden snitch and Hedwig. The striped candles represent Quidditch posts including all four House colors. Everything but the owl and the candles were edible! And the second cake layer was tie-dyed! Overall the project took her about a week. When it came time to cut into the cake, it literally took me a half an hour to build the strength to slice into such a beautiful piece of art. After all, to me this cake was a symbol of my childhood. It helped me realize that I don’t need to completely change who I am in order to be a “grown-up.”

I started reading HP at the age of nine, and no one in the room thought it was strange that my sister made me an HP cake. The series helped me become the Lit Geek I am.

Becoming an adult isn’t so much about leaving things behind, but more about being able to embrace change and incorporate new experiences as well, and it only took me 25 years to realize it.